New treatment option for hip and knee replacement showcased to seniors

A million-dollar orthopedic robot has made its way to our city. It is part of the Live Well Showcase show. The robot is referred to as Mako SmartRobotics. It is a new treatment option for those who suffer from arthritis or had an injury to the hip or knee. An orthopedic surgeon in Lethbridge, who demoed the robot, explains how it operates.

“When we do a knee replacement or a hip replacement we have jigs or we have certain landmarks that we use to make the cuts but a lot of it has potential for human error. So a robot potentially can limit those types of errors and be very very precise. So if we making a cut and we want it to be exactly five degrees, if a human is just sort of using a jig or something they might be off by one or two or heaven forbid five degrees, they might be really off, whereas a robot would be much more likely to hit the target of five degrees consistently over and over again,” said Dr. Lance Anderson, an Orthopedic Surgeon in Lethbridge.

So far there are only two provinces incorporating this type of technology. They are Ontario and Nova Scotia.